Loop slide buckle



April '19, 1932. 5 H, ELWELL 1,854,544

LOOP SLIDE BUCKLE Filed March 50, 1931 Patented Apr. 19, 1932 PATENT o FicE GEORGE HENRY ELWELL, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNQR TO THE WIRE NQVELTY MANUFACTURING- COMPANY, OF VEST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A COR- PORATION OF CONNECTICUT LOOP SLIDE BUCKLE Application filed March 30, 1931 Serial No. 526,392. r

This invention relates to loop slide buckles combining a button loop with a strap-holding device adapted to be adjustably mounted upon a strap, webbing, or the like from which the device is suspended for a connective engagement with a button provided by a garment, or the like, thus supported by the strap. The invention relates more especially to that class of loop slide buckles of which the buckle portion employs a clamping lever and the button loop portion is of either rigid or expansible character, and therefore the objects of the invention are to provide a reversible loop buckle the clamping lever of which lies in the plane of the loop buckle for movement out of such plane in either direction; and to provide a strap-holding portion of a loop buckle adapted to be mounted upon a strap in a manner which eliminates the usual process of strap threading therein. With these and other objects in view as may become apparent from the within disclosures, the invention consists not only of the particular form herein pointed out and illustrated by the draw ings, but readily admits of certain modifications within the scope of what hereinafter may be claimed.

It is old in the art to provide a one-piece wire button loop having integral therewith a slide buckle portion with spaced intermediate bar structures in longitudinal alignment, one with the other, and each supported by a side structure of the slide buckle portion. It is also old to provide the upper horizontal bar of such a slide buckle portion with a clamping lever pivotally mounted thereon and having a tab adapted to be swung against the extremities of the spaced intermediate bars While an integral toothed portion of the clamping lever obliquely extends out of the plane of the slide buckle portion upon the opposite side of such plane to that engaged by the tab, but such structure is not reversible in use in that the tab must always engage the same side of the loop slide buckle plane. While the device about to be described employs the slide buckle portion having the spaced and aligned intermediate bar structures and a clamping lever pivotally mounted upon the upper bar of the buckle frame, the tab and toothed portions of the improvedclamping lever lie in a com- I mon plane and are movable as a unit out of the buckle plane in either direction, the tab passing'between the spaced intermediate bars therefor, but prevented from so passing upon its engagement against a strap threaded into the buckle.

The character of the improvement may be best understood by the reference to one illustrative device embodying the invention and illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which the Figure 1 is an upright elevation of the-device; the Figure 2 is a cross-section of the device upon the dotted line 2 2 0f the previous figure, the device being mounted upon a portion of strap illustrated in dotted line; the Figure 3 is a side elevationv ofthe device, the clamping lever of which is swung in one direction out of the plane of the device, andanother position of the lever being illustrated'in dotted lines; and the Figure 4; is an upright elevation of a slide buckle portion, illustrated apart from the button loop portion of the device, embodying the identical principle illustrated by the previous figures, but illustrating the clamping lever made of wire.

Y 1 Referring more particularly to the drawings the novelty of the invention, while illustrated in connection with a rigid button loop, is just as well'adapted for use in connection with any resilient type of expansible button loop; for the novelty is confined to the slide buckle portion of'the device to such an extent that the button loop may be advantageously eliminated if desired, and the slide buckle used in connection with a separate button loop. The device is made in two parts. The wire frame, as illustrated, is made from a piece of wire a middle portion of which is formed to provide the button loop ,1, thewire end portions being bent outwardly therefrom in opposite, horizontal directions .to provide aligned portions of the lower horizontal bar structure 2 of the buckle frame, and bent at right angles upwardly to provide the lower portions 3 and 4 of oppositely arranged side structures, and then inwardly and then backwardly upon themselves and in an outwardly. direction to provide the looped intermediate ba-r structures 5 and 6 relatively spaced and longitudinally aligned in parallel relation with the portions 3 and 1 of the lower bar structure, both wire ends being bent upwardly to provide the upper portions 7 and 8 of the oppositely arranged side structures, the Wire being finally bent inwardly at right angles therefrom, their ex tremities substantially abutting, one with the other, and relatively secured, if desired, by welding as at 9, and together providing the upper horizontal bar 10. The clamping lever may be made of sheet metal or of wire pivotally mounted upon the upper horizontal bar 10, as at 11, to swing thereon in both directions out of the plane of the device, as illustrated by the Figure 3, the clamping lever being formed with parts 12 and13 adjacent and substantially parallel with the intermediate bar structures 5 and 6, and a tab or central part 13 extending between the spaced intermediate bar structures 5 and 6, the parts 12, 13, and l t being substantially in the same plane, and the parts 12 and 13 being provided with teeth 15 extending therefrom substantially in said plane.

In use, a strap 16 is looped around the intermediate bar structures 5 and 6, as illustrated by the Figure 2, from the side of the plane of the device opposite to that from which the clamping lever is first swung, as illustrated by the Figure 3, and the adaptability of the clamping lever to be swung out of the plane of the device in either direction provides a reversible structure into which the looped strap 16 may be introduced from either side of such plane. The tab 14 then being manually pushed back into the plane of the device against the looped strap 16 and between the intermediate bar structures 5 and 6, as illustrated by the Figure 2, the teeth 15 biting intothe strap material. downward .pull upon the device, thus mounted upon the strap 16, causes the strap 16 thus engaged by the teeth 15 to exert a tendency to urge the tab 14 of the clamping lever past the intermediate bar structures 5 and 6, the tab 14 carrying therewith a middle portion of the looped strap'16, the holding strain upon the device being equalized between the grip of the teeth 15 upon the strap material and the endurance of the looped portion of the strap 16 to obstruct and arrest the passage of the tab 14 substantially within the plane of the device.

I claim:

1. A reversible strap-holding device comprising a frame structure having associated upper and lower loops, including a horizontal upper bar and side structures, the side structures providing and supporting intermediate bar structures longitudinally aligned and having ends relatively spaced, one from the other, and providing communication between the associated loops, a clamping lever pivotally mounted upon the horizontal bar and having toothed portions movable within the upper associated loop and adjacent the intermediate bar structures, and a tab portion provided by the clamping lever, the width of the tab portion being less than the distance between the spaced ends of the intermediate bar structures.

2. A reversible loop slide buckle comprising a frame structure including a button loop and a buckle frame of associated upper and lower loops having a horizontal upper bar and side structures, the side structures providing and supporting intermediate bar structures longitudinally aligned and relatively spaced, one from the other, and partially separating the associated loops, and a clamping lever pivotally mounted upon the horizontal bar and integrally including, within a common plane, toothed portions movable within the upper of the associated loops and adjacent the intermediate bar structures, and a. centrally extending tab portion provided by the clamping lever, the

width of the tab portion being less than the distance between the spaced ends of the in termediate bar structures.

GEORGE HENRY ELWELL. 

